


The Lie of the Land - Doctor Who Series 10 - Episode 8 - (Meta/Review)

by Boji



Series: Doctor Who Series 10 Meta/Reviews [8]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adaptation, Belated review, Classic Novel, Episode Related, Episode Review, Gen, Meta, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Orwell - Freeform, Review
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-14 09:31:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16037708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boji/pseuds/Boji
Summary: "...Without doubt, Whithouse's The Lie of the Land can be seen as a fascinating reworking and interpretation of George Orwell's 1984."





	The Lie of the Land - Doctor Who Series 10 - Episode 8 - (Meta/Review)

  
_The Lie of the Land_ by Toby Whithouse is the last in a loose narrative trilogy which began with Steven Moffat's [_Extremis._](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15702540) But, whilst it is undoubtedly superior to Peter Harnesses episode [_The Pyramid at the End of the World_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16014044) it doesn't - in my opinion - match up to the opening episode in this three-part storyline. Both its pacing and its ending are lacklustre. Yet, without doubt, Whithouse's _The Lie of the Land_ can be seen as a fascinating reworking and interpretation of George Orwell's _1984_.  


  
  


In the teaser (at the top of the episode) we see a montage of events which occurred throughout history, from the primordial split in an amoeba cell, to man walking on the moon. We learn that on each step along the way (across the centuries) Planet Earth and humanity itself progressed only thanks to the shepherding of the alien monks. In re-writing history, and diminishing man's accomplishments, the monks render the populace dependent, eradicating the will of the people and enslaving all. Orwell's _1984_ (originally written in 1948 - made into a film starring the late, great, _War Doctor_ John Hurt in 1984) is a classic dystopian novel and a blistering commentary on a totalitarian state. As in this episode, history in the novel is rewritten to fit the official party line touted in the province of Oceania, in the country known as "Airstrip One" which used to be known as Britain. The country is governed by the ruling totalitarian party, INGSOC, whose party leader Big Brother looms over the populace via giant posters and images of his face. Telescreens monitor both the private and public lives of the populace, giant smart-screens transmitting as well as broadcasting. And so people live under the constant surveillance of the Thought Police.

  
  


In the novel the main protagonist, Winston Smith, works in the records department of the Ministry of Truth, revising records and eradicating history. The ministry building itself is described as a white pyramid rising up from out of London's squalor. It is this one detail which gives meaning to the alien monks having travelled into this dimension by pyramid-ship. Whithouse updates the revising of history (as seen in Orwell) from the analogue era to the digital: human memory being actually over-written, human thought swamped via continuously transmitted signals boosted across the country from giant golden statue-transmitters of the monks themselves. In this revised world, the Doctor appears to have been co-opted or brainwashed. He appears to have fallen in line with the dictator monks. This is akin to Winston Smith having been a good member of his political party (working to ensure the doctrine prevails) when the novel _1984_ opens. In Orwell's novel the government controls the population via four Ministries: The Ministry of Peace, The Ministry of Plenty, The Ministry of Love and the Ministry of Truth. It is the latter Whithouse focuses on here, the Ministry of Truth raised to the level of Orwell's INGSOC, or Government itself. The monks subdue the population via broadcast from within their pyramid, controlling belief and thus controlling truth.

The reality of that control is evident from the opening moments of this episode when riot police burst into a typical suburban home to arrest a dissenter, ripping a mother away from her child. But the depth of the changes in the world are only truly brought home when the camera first focuses on Bill. Separated from both the Doctor and Nardole she returns home from work to an empty, stripped-down flat where she seems to be living a truly isolated existence. Her only companion is her imaginary mother whom she visualises as she talks about recent events, in a deft moment of exposition. Interestingly - in that children often have imaginary friends who they insist are fully real and corporeal, even if grown-ups cannot see them - we see Bill place a mug of tea on the kitchen table for her imaginary mother, after making one for herself. It's a poignant moment capturing both how lonely Bill is, and implying she may be emotionally unbalanced with only her faith in the Doctor and her love for her late mother to sustain her.  


  
  


  


When Nardole breaks into the flat (and Bill's bleak existence) to be greeted with a punch and a hug, we take his words at face value - (i.e. that he was poisoned and incapacitated from the gas unleashed at Agrofuel in the previous episode) as to why he's been absent. It's only later that it becomes obvious Nardole was sent by the Doctor to rescue Bill. 

And the Doctor?

  
  


From the teaser his has been the voice acting as the conduit between man and monk. His overtly smiling face has condoned the subjugation of the human race. The Doctor becomes Whithouse's reworking of Orwell's Big Brother, in an utterly skin-crawling performance given by Peter Capaldi. Capaldi projects a faux, heightened, joviality making the viewer question whether or not the Doctor is being held hostage, or if he's been brainwashed together with the majority of the populace. 

Symbolically the Doctor's broadcasts nod back to the Second World War, to [Lord HawHaw ](http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/hawhaw/) the British man broadcasting Nazi propaganda from Germany to the U.K. Making the Doctor into such a duplicitous figure, however briefly, and twisting him into anti-hero leaves Bill Potts with no option but to step up and become the heroine of the hour. Bill is, of course, aided, abetted and manipulated by Nardole (part sidekick, part comic relief) who smuggles Bill onto the giant cruise ship from which the Doctor now broadcasts. This is both a nod to the platforms anchored in the North Sea in Orwell's _1984_ , and a tongue in cheek nod to _Radio Caroline_ whose story (recounting the impact the station had on British culture in the early 1960s) is told in the film _The Boat that Rocked_. And then there are the overt visual references to _Star Wars_ ; with the alien monk sweeping aboard ship bearing more than a slight resembling to Emperor Palantine and with Nardole and Bill trying to break the Doctor out of a lavish, white prison cell as if he were Princess Leia.

The performances from both Pearl Mackie and Peter Capaldi are what make this episode. Set and costume design, together with C.G.I, do create the look and feel of a palpable dystopian reality (the art department possibly drawing directly on artwork done to promote Orwell's novel) but it is the acting which makes this episode as compelling as it is. Pearl Mackie is utterly magnificent, giving a powerful, startling, performance. She is completely believable; her rage and incredulity easily standing in for that of a young viewer shocked at the Doctor as villain - at his continuing defence of the Monks.

All the early action in this episode pivots on Mackie's performance. She skilfully holds the audience in the palm of her hand, her distress palpable, evident in both her facial expressions and in the look in her eyes. Pearl Mackie has a lovely ability to turn her performance in an instant - from scared to jubilant when Nardole crashes into her flat and she punches him in the arm - from furious to relieved when the Doctor finally reveals his plan. But the stellar moment in this episode is the moment in which Bill grabs a security guard's gun and shoots the Doctor, multiple times, at point blank range. There is nothing in Mackie's performance which telegraphs Bill's impending action, even given what she sees as the ultimate betrayal from him. Being able to inject that element of surprise into her performance is what makes the pivotal scene shared with Peter Capaldi as jaw-dropping and special as it is.

Book-ending this episode are Bill's memories of her mother, crafted into an imaginary presence with whom she shares her thoughts and dreams. Memories, and the love they evoke, become the buttress against the Monk’s hate. Love saves the world. It's a J.K. Rowling, Albus Dumbledore, solution. And Bill succeeds where the Doctor himself fails. Personally, I found the premise as written too great a stretch - i.e. that a Time-Lord with three brain-stems would be overcome by a mental feedback loop from the alien monk, whilst a paltry human girl (with one brain-stem and a warm heart) would succeed. But a mother's love (and loving your mother) is both universal and terribly tangible for small children who are, after-all, still this shows primary audience.

George Owell said of his novel:

> _“My recent novel [‘1984’] is NOT intended as an attack on socialism…but as a show-up of the perversions...which have already been partly realised in Communism and Fascism.…”[Letter to F. A. Henson, l6 June 1949. CEJL, Vol 4, p. 564.]_

In a somewhat similar vein I wouldn't say the Doctor's quip regarding _Fake News_ (upon first seeing the streaming broadcast being transmitted by the headset wearing Monk) is simply a comment on the current Western political situation, and/or political reporting. But there are obvious, salient, parallels here given the polarisation of thought gathering speed on social media as a whole. Plus, it's obvious that this polarisation is likely to continue and only grow more fraught with the mainstream adoption of wearable tech such as Google Glass or VR tech headsets. 

  
  


If Bill is the heroine pivotal in this adventure, the anti-heroine is of course Missy whom the Doctor turns to as a source of knowledge. Her holding cell is force-field protected and reminiscent of of Hannibal Lecter's glass one. More so, we can clearly see the influence permeating from _Sherlock_ (also written and produced by Steven Moffat) and from Eurus Holmes’ imprisonment. Eurus, also a psychopath, is housed in a high security fish tank of a cell, within a remote military installation. She reveals herself to be a violin virtuoso. Missy sits at a grand piano, in her quantum fold chamber cell, playing for her select audience of one. Revealing that Bill, having 'Consented', is the lynch pin holding the alien invader Monks on Earth, Missy is utterly uncaring about the other, younger, woman’s fate. 

Interestingly, in the tag of the piece, after the Doctor has 'won' and the Monks been defeated (as Missy herself has been defeated by her nemesis many a time) the Doctor is revealed as father confessor, or therapist. He sits in the vault listening to Missy as she takes stock of her actions and sins. He listens to her tally of those she murdered - sitting in a similar position to that which a therapist might choose and, in so doing, casting her thousand year imprisonment in a different light. His actions quietly beg the question as to whether or not Missy can feel genuine remorse and become a reformed Time Lady. Thinking back to [_Extremis_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15702540) I do wonder if the recitation - ostensibly penned by River Song - might not be foreshadowing the fact that Missy will reveal her virtuous self 

> _"Virtue is only virtue in extremis."_

\- when battling her animus (or male self) The Master given the John Sim rumours, now confirmed. I also wonder if Bill's bullseye, fired from a gun that was supposed to be loaded with blanks, might not have triggered Twelve's regeneration cycle - which then somehow spontaneously goes into remission to recur later at the end of the series.

Regeneration in the modern _Whoniverse_ grows stranger. In _The Lie of the Land_ it appears to bring on the beginning of the change, and yet also appears to unshackle the Doctor from brainwashing he later reveals never took. We know from canon that regeneration can be truncated, similarly to how Ten channelled his aborted regeneration energy first into self-healing and then into his dismembered hand which had been previously stored in a stasis jar by Captain Jack Harkness ( _Journey's End_.) Ten healed himself _without_ regenerating, thus canonically it's possible. But, it doesn't explain the incongruity of the Doctor being unable to trigger the regeneration energy to heal his eyesight when blinded.

 _The Lie of the Land_ is a strong, enjoyable episode. Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie are fantastic. Matt Lucas is brilliant as the comic relief and not half bad as an action sidekick.But I found the resolution to the adventure too saccharine. I did like the nod to Joss Whedon's _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ in the tag scene though, where the Doctor explains to Bill that humans have a built in perception filter that will filter out the uncanny, the strange, the alien. And, earlier, I loved the moment Bill Potts won one over on the Doctor who woke handcuffed and trapped to find his companion accepting what she believed to be her approaching death, kissing him on the cheek in farewell.

Pearl Mackie has innate charm which is a gift to her performances. She is talented, holds the camera - and possibly the stage - compellingly, and is a lovely companion. Mackie truly shines in this episode. It’s a pity that the script over-reaches its ambitions.

**Author's Note:**

> * When this was written I hadn't watched past the episode in question and, when editing, still had not watched the two part series finale. Thus, any/all suppositions are framed in that moment in 2017 broadcast time.
> 
> All photographic stills herein are property of the BBC and are used under the legal concept of fair use and fair dealing.


End file.
